An anonymous site visitor sent me an interesting e-mail today. If it is legitimate, it would appear that I really “ticked off” someone of over at Orovo when I reviewed their product lately. Since whomever sent this material did not have the strength of conviction to sign his or her own name to the e-mail, I cannot be completely sure of its authenticity.

However, regardless of its authenticity, I cannot let this sort of tripe go unchallenged — as it is libellous and a complete lie. Nonetheless, I am flattered that they think UltimateFatBurner.com poses enough of a threat to them that they need to launch a personal attack against me.

Before you read the e-mail, I ask you to consider this…

What kind of company launches a personal, rude, and slanderous attack against its detractors? Is it a credible, legitimate one that has a real interest in bringing ground-breaking products to the marketplace, looking after the genuine interests of its audience, and building brand recognition?

Or is it one run by a bunch of scam artists looking to fill their bank accounts before their customers figure out they’ve been hoodwinked? I’ve been here since 1999, looking after the genuine interests of my visitors, and I’m not going anywhere. And I’ll still be here after the FTC sues Orovo into the ground.

OK, here’s the complete unedited e-mail I received… (check out the spelling and grammar — does this look like it was written by a professional, or a high school drop out? I’ll let you answer that question…)

Wow, you pissed off the MLM Orovo people with your review! They are posting things about the credibility of your site, your motives, and the fact that you are in the pocket of various companies…here’s what they posted on a message board:

“The website www.ultimatefatburner.com is bogus and mislead consumers. It bashes on products that they don’t create, sell or get commissions from and praise they ones they do. The information they provide is basically useless. This scam website claims to be unbiased in it’s reviews and it’s a bunch of crap.

The sites owner’s name is Paul Crane is a balding, puffied body con artist thief that is strictly motivated to sell his own products like the placebo pill Lean System 7 and his comic weight loss books.

He only likes his own products. We wouldn’t cave into his demands for money for a positive review so he bashed the scientifically proven super-food diet weight loss product Orovo. Don’t beilieve his lies.”

Nice professional comments, don’t you think? Now let’s go through this e-mail point by point…

OutrageousLieNumber #1: “The website www.ultimatefatburner.com is bogus and mislead consumers. It bashes on products that they don’t create, sell or get commissions from and praise they ones they do. The information they provide is basically useless. This scam website claims to be unbiased in it’s reviews and it’s a bunch of crap.”

Uh guys, it’s “misleads”. Learn to spell, OK?

There’s an old saying, and it goes like this…

You can fool some of the people some of the time, you can fool ALL of the people some of the time, but you can’t ALL of the people ALL of the time.

Basically what I’m saying is this — UltimateFatBurner.com has been online since 1999. There’s a reason its grown steadily since then, and progressed into the largest and most respected fat burner review site on the Net. It’s because from day #1, our focus has been on our visitors – not on selling them crummy products that don’t deliver. If that really were the case, we would no longer be in business. Why? Because no business can sustain itself this long — even on the Internet — if its only mission was to “stiff” its visitors. Online, word can get around awfully fast.

We are credible. Our reviews have merit. And our commitment to our visitors is paramount.

OutrageousLieNumber #2: “It bashes on products that they don’t create, sell or get commissions from and praise they ones they do.”

Perhaps whoever wrote this should do their homework. UltimateFatBurner.com doesn’t “create”, sell, or manufacture ANY product. And if our income was based on earning commissions from the products we recommend (one of the most common visitor e-mails I receive is “do you recommend ANYTHING?”), we’d be in a sad state indeed.

Secondly, the connotation seems to be that because we earn a small commission on the few products we do recommend, we are therefore unable to make a recommendation that has any merit. Fact is, commissions pay for the upkeep and maintenance of this site and for staff, and are perfectly ethical provided they are made in the best interest of the visitor, and not purely for financial gain.

Answer me this…

Do Orovo affiliates not earn commissions on the sales they make? Do the Orovo brass not make money from the sales the company makes? How then, does this very obvious conflict of interest not compromise any of their statements, as it apprently does mine? You can’t have it both ways…

You really have to call into the credibility of anyone who says anything like this. It’s such a silly, easily-disproved lie, you have to question anything else they say afterwards. First, I’ve always been upfront about posting my picture on the Net.

As you can see, I’m not balding or “puffied body” — which I assume means “fat.” And of course, I have to ask…

Why would the state of my hairline or waistline make what I have to say any more or less credible, anyway? Are there not overweight doctors, engineers and scientists? Or is anyone with a weight problem and a receeding hairline an idiot by definition?

And speaking of fat, you’d think whoever posted this tripe would be a little more sympathetic to people with a weight problem; after all, Orovo is partly retailed as a weight loss product.

Outrageous Lie #4: “The sites owner’s name is Paul Crane is a balding, puffied body con artist thief that is strictly motivated to sell his own products like the placebo pill Lean System 7 and his comic weight loss books.

Uh, get it right guys. Lean System 7 is not “my” product. It is manufactured by iSatori and it is one of the few products I recommend. Here’s why..

There is a credible study validating its effectiveness — you can view the abstract here at PubMed. And it was tested against a placebo, and found to be more effective. So it’s not a “placebo pill.” Please send me the link to the clinical study validating Orovo’s claims, and where its posted on PubMed. I’d be happy to post it in my review.

The company that manufactures LS7, iSatori, it is ethical and customer-focused. It was nominated for the coveted 2006 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics from the Better Business Bureau of Denver, Colorado. I didn’t see any such nominations for Orovo or the folks who retail it.

When purchased direct online, iSatori offers a 100% satisfaction or your money back guarantee. And they don’t just pay “lip service” to this guarantee — they honor it. This is a big one for me, and since it allows the consumer to try the product without assuming any financial risk, it makes a recommendation a no brainer. I only wish there were more companies that conducted business in this manner.

If Orovo had ANY of these things going for it, chances are I’d be linking to their Web site, as opposed to writing about it here.

I have written a diet book — as have many zillions of people — and sell it online here. I’m very proud of it. It too comes with a money-back guarantee that I honor completely. But if you review this Web site subjectively, you’ll see it’s hardly the focus of my efforts. Fact is, most visitors to this Web site are interested in fat burners, and not diets. I’m not sure how writing a diet book (a single one, not several as inferrred by the term “comic weight loss books”) compromises my ability to review fat burners in an unbiased fashion.

Oh, and by the way, that’s “site’s” with an apostrophe. “Sites” is plural. Again, learn to spell.

Outrageous Lie #5: “He only likes his own products. We wouldn’t cave into his demands for money for a positive review so he bashed the scientifically proven super-food diet weight loss product Orovo. Don’t beilieve his lies.”

Whoever is writing this stuff — if it is for Orovo, needs to be careful. Defamatory statements like this one make Orovo subject to litigation. Because these are total outright lies. UltimateFatBurner.com has never charged for a positive review, or written a negative review for money. Reviews are unbiased, based on the merit of the product. I have never had any contact with any member of Orovo. They did not approach me, and I did not approach them.

And to defend a libellous statement such as this in a courtroom — “we wouldn’t cave into his demands for money for a positive review” — they would need to provide verifiable proof that such a communication took place. And they cannot, because it did not happen!

Oh, and by the way, “beilieve” is spelt “believe.” If you’re going to bad-mouth someone, at least learn how to spell.

Instead of attacking UltimateFatBurner.com and me personally, the good folks at Orovo could end this entire discussion very easily right now by unvieling all the “science” that verifies Orovo’s product claims. You know the science that validates the claims of weight loss, the reduction of lines and wrinkles, and even the ability to help you “look younger.” (I’d love to see the FTC evaluate this product’s claims!).

Fact is, there’s all kinds of talk about “science”, but so far, I haven’t seen one clinical reference, one placebo-controlled double blind study, heck — anything at all that validates any of this product’s claims. There aren’t any on the web site. There aren’t any in this nasty e-mail.

Show me the science if there’s so much of it.

Show your customers and your affiliates the science. Wouldn’t that make sales skyrocket — unveiling some real, scientific proof? Wouldn’t Orovo get national and even international press coverage — free publicity — if it actually did cause one to lose weight, reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles and reverse the aging process?

Show me the journal references at Medline or PubMed. I’d love to see them. Heck, I’ll be first one to change my review and link directly to the Orovo web site and drive traffic to the web site for free.

Show me the science!

Bottom line?

If this is the official stance of Orovo, it doesn’t bode well for their customers or their credibility. And they need to be very, very careful about making statements that are very obviously slanderous.

Instead of providing the scientific proof they “apparently” have to validate their product claims, they attack UltimateFatBurner.com and me personally. They are trying to damage my credibility and that of UltimateFatBurner.com not because they have the greatest pill in the world and I’m a scam artist, but because I threaten their revenue stream.

Think about it.

Author: Paul

Paul Crane is the founder of UltimateFatBurner.com. His passions include supplements, working out, motorcycles, guitars... and of course, his German Shepherd dogs.

About This Site

About UltimateFatBurner

Since 1999, UltimateFatBurner has been one of the few sites on the Net dedicated to bringing you unbiased and science-based reviews of all your favorite (and not so favorite) diet, weight loss and sport supplements.

Unbiased, of course, means we’re not owned by a supplement company or affiliated with anyone in particular.